Sons of God, Daughters of Man
by MannixMind
Summary: Picks up right after the end of Worlds End with Penryn, Raffe, Paige and Beleil flying away from the Aerie. Uriel has just deceived most of the angels into thinking that the apocalypse has arrived, which makes Raffe wonder what other deceptions he's used to gain power. How much of Raffe's world is based on a lie? T for violence, tension, and Raffryn light smut.
1. Chapter 1

**My first Penryn Fanfic! Let me know what you think! Raffryn romance will pick up later in the story!**

We had been flying for about twenty minutes when Paige, still riding Beliel like a bizarre, upside-down litter began to descend. Guided by Paige and her swarm we had flown out of the bay hugging the coast as we travelled north along the Pacific. Up ahead I could see the Point Bonita Lighthouse and as our dissent became more rapid it became clear that this was our destination. I felt a sharp pang in my chest at the thought of this changed Paige bringing us here, to a spot that had been so special to the little girl I knew and loved.

The area surrounding San Francisco is full of hills and mountains so growing up it was normal for every school trip, every summer camp, every Girl Scout outing- heck every outdoor gathering of kids period- to feature some degree of hiking. Kids would come back sunburnt and happy after a day of scrambling over rocks or playing explorers in the forest and Paige, would pretend she enjoyed her day staying back in an empty classroom with a teachers aid. Last year by chance my history class made us take a trip to the lighthouse, and when I realized it was wheelchair accessible we began to bring Paige.

She had loved it. The little lighthouse sat in a rock at the end of a jagged cape stretching out into the sea, and could only be accessed by a long skinny bridge connecting it to the mainland. The waves and the mist made it seem kind of desolate to me, but Paige was just happy she got to be rugged and adventurous like all the other kids. Even mom had liked it- the 360 degree view of the surrounding area must have made her feel secure. Or maybe she just liked that it presented the opportunity for her to put her crazy on display for every boat entering or leaving the San Francisco Bay, with mom you could never be certain.

The scorpions carrying Paige and Beliel set her down with him right in front of the light house, and Raffe touched down just a few feet away. He held on to me for a few seconds while he surveyed the area with a stern look on his face. Finally deciding there was no immediate danger he placed me down gently, keeping one hand on small of my back to help me balance afterwards. It was an innocent gesture, but it made me feel decidedly ungrounded.

Paige picked up Beliel like he was a doll and walked over to the lighthouse, yea led open the door and walked inside.

Raffe started to follow and then Looked back at me as I stood temporarily frozen in place. I don't know why, but some part of me was saying that it didn't want to follow this new strange wraith of my sister into a place that had been so special to us, especially when she was carrying a near dead daemon she'd butchered alive only a few hours ago.

"Penryn" Raffe murmured stepping back closer to me. "You don't have to go if you don't want to, but if you don't follow her she will notice."

I looked up at him sharply, not ready for the un-Raffe-like sympathy in his gaze. He knew how hard this was for me, but he was doing me the service of being honest about the situation instead of coddling me and telling me everything would be alright. I appreciated that, even if a small part of me just wanted to curl up in his arms like a small child until all the burdens on my mind went away.

"Your right. Thanks," I said walking briskly towards the door. I could almost feel his lips twitch behind me as he followed in my wake.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you clearly, what did you say? Something about me being right? It's good to know you've seen the light... Now if only you'd admit how devastatingly attractive you find me then we'll know we're making real prog..."

His last words died on his tongue as he followed me into the tiny dining room of the lighthouse. Paige had placed Beleil on the old sturdy looking table, and was busy binding his now shriveled limbs to the legs on the table with fishing line so that he was stretched out like an X across the table.

Seeing us enter she glanced up sheepishly, her eyes fixed on my face as if she was wary of my reaction. I forced myself to put on a mild expression and smile at her a little. I hoped it was enough, I'd never been much of an actress. Her lips stretched upwards in a grimace looking expression, but her eyes crinkled like they always had when she smiled, so I took it as a good sign.

"Ask him everything. When he wakes," she said quietly, looking past me to Raffe, then back to me again for reassurance "does it help Ryn-Ryn?"

I try not to let my eyes widen as I realize her intent. "Yes Paige, that will help Raffe and me a lot. Thank you for thinking of it," I say pulling her into a hug. She squeezes me back, harder than she ever could have before but not so hard that it hurts and then looks up and says, "you ask, I'll be with the light," and turns to go up the narrow staircase leading to the beacon overhead.

When Raffe and I are alone I say quietly, "I don't know what to ask him. And I don't think I have the stomach to try to get answers out of him if he doesn't want to tell me something."

"Don't worry I have some ideas," Raffe says darkly, then seeing my face quickly adds "some ideas for questions to ask, I won't torture him here if it makes you uncomfortable Penryn."

I guess that's Raffe's idea of a gentlemanly gesture. I roll my eyes and steal myself, refusing to be the weakest member of our bizarre party.

"No it's fine, when he wakes up do what you want," I say, sinking into a chair.

It's been a hellish day and I'm exhausted but I brace myself mentally as I look around the familiar room trying to keep myself from thinking about how my sister used to play pioneer in this room that she'd now turned into a makeshift torture chamber. I shook my head trying to banish the useless wistful thoughts. I should have learned by now that nothing is sacred in the World After.


	2. Chapter 2

It took less time than I expected for Baliel to recover from the paralysis of the scorpion venom. Within an hour of our arrival at the lighthouse his eyes began to follow us around the room, and his fingers and toes began to flex ever so slightly, as if he couldn't help but test out the extent to which his muscles had atrophied during the scorpions' attack. He was truly in a sorry state. Around an hour and a half after Paige had lashed him to the table Raffe spoke, his vouch hard and resonant in a way I had never heard before.

"Baliel," he boomed. This was not Raffe, my sarcastic yet compassionate traveling companion. This was the Archangel Rafael, Wrath of God. Outside, the waves crashed so high against the rocks that the windows of the lighthouse were sprayed with foam. It was almost as if...

"BALIEL!" Raffe boomed again, his voice now sounding utterly non-human. Outside the window clouds gathered from nowhere, and the sky turned a sickly green color. Paige came rushing down the stairs her eyes wide with panic, and kept into my arms, staring at Raffe. On the table Baliel had begun to writhe. Raffe had told me that names were a powerful thing, and in that instant it dawned on me how little I had understood when he'd said it to me the first time.

"I will talk to your Daughter of Man!" Baliel screeched his voice sounding strangled and strained. Some of Paige's bites must have damaged his vocal chords.

"Raphael I will tell her all! But she must be the one to ask, and then she must be she who kills me."

Moving faster than I'd even seen him Raffe grabbed Baliel by the throat, and slammed him back against the table as lightening cracked into the ocean less that a football field away from them. His eyes blazed with a supernatural fire as he stared down at the daemon.

"You have no room to bargain daemon! I leveled Sodom and Gammora with detached, professional indifference, you cannot conceive the pain I have in store for the creature who stole my wings and nearly killed..."

Even with Raffe's hand around his thought Baliel began to shake with a disgusting gargling laugh. "Nearly killed what? Your precious daughter of man? Raphael you have fallen far indeed if you cannot bring yourself to cause her discomfort for the sake of this bargain. I have spent six thousand years in Hell! What could you archangel possibly teach me about suffering?"

Lighting cracked again illuminating the room. Raffe seemed to have grown, his perfect features contorted in rage, his every muscle bulging with barely contained energy and wrath. Baliel was right, he was not his usual rational self. This was the Raffe who had scooped me up and delivered me to my family after the attack on the aerie, risking everything for reasons I tried not to let myself thing about. I rose from my seat by the window and walked over to him.

"Raffe..." I wispered, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He whipped around, eyes blazing. The speed of his turn and the ferocity in his face made me stumble backwards, as my inner instincts screamed at me to run from the heavenly predator in front of me. The instant I began to loose my footing he released Beliel and caught me with both arms, pulling me against his chest. The look in his eyes shifted to one of pain, as he realized he'd frightened me away.

On the table Baliel howled with laughter. If there was anyone in the history of the world who begged to be tortured it was him...

"Raffe I'll do it. Just tell me what we need to know and I'll do it. I'll ask him what you want me to ask and afterwards," I gulped trying to arrange my face so I looked determined and not in way over my head, " I'll kill him if you want me to."

He released me looking wary.

"It's the fastest way," I added, and he nodded stepping behind me ever so slightly as I turned to Baliel. The daemon was still chortling pitifully.

"That's right Raphael take orders from your daughter of man." Before I even thought about it I had unsheathed Poky Bear and slashed the daemon across he stomach, opening the wound I had given him weeks before. I could feel the rage pulsating out of the the blade, but I honestly couldn't say whether the act of violence had been one of the swords doing or my own.

Baliel howled with pain as what little blood he had left began to ooze lazily out of the shallow cut. I could feel Raffe's eyes boring into me but I knew I'd lose my nerve if I looked at him so instead incpkept my eyes locked on Baliel's face and said with all the cold, sarcastic venom I could muster, "You asked to speak with me?"


	3. Chapter 3

Baliel's howl of pain turned into a hacking cough. I tried to keep my eyes focused on his, tried to avoid looking at the now scabbed over chunks missing from his neck. Despite the clear pain he was in, Baliel smiled wickedly up at her.

"You poor, stupid thing," he simpered, condescension dripping from each syllable, "you probably have no idea why you're able to yield that sword."

I arch a eyebrow, hoping he takes it to mean I'm unimpressed but in truth I'm rapt with attention. I can tell Raffe is too, though he snorts with derision. I guess by now I'm familiar enough with his derisive sound effects to know when he's faking it.

"I can't blame you, uneducated Neanderthal that you are. No you should feel no shame in your ignorance, it's humans natural state. But Raphael, well now that is a different story," he says sneering at Raffe as he goes.

"What are you talking about?" I spit, hearing the lameness of my words the second they leave my mouth. Good one Penryn. Solid detective skills. Baliel gives me a pitying look that makes me want to smash his face in and looks back at Raffe. apparently I'm only hear to act as a chorus of unnecessary questions, or to serve as a human shield from Raffe's anger.

"Did you see how easily they were deceived Raphael? Your legion of warrior angels? Didn't it make you wonder if it had happened before?" Baliel says his voice raising again. Raffe is stiff with attention at this point.

"What are you talking about." He says darkly. Apparently neither of us are master interrogators, but Baliel doesn't care. He has a captive audience and from the triumphant grin that spreads across his battered and aged face at Raffe's words I can tell the dark secret he's about to spill is one which will cut Raffe to the core.

"Didn't you ever wonder why they looked so beastly? Why with such beautiful parents they turned out so horrific? Or we're you content to believe that they were just one of god's mysteries?"

I get a sinking feeling in my stomach as I realize he's talking about the nephilim. Raffe had spent centuries chasing down the monstrous offspring of his watchers and the human women they had taken as wives. The watchers were stripped of their wings and cast into hell for their offenses and the wives were given to low daemons for sick sport. Raffe had circled the world hunting and slaying his fallen warriors children until at last he rid the world of the abominations. The task tormented him for a millennia.

"We thought there was no chance the demonic giants we raised could ever be mistaken for the children of angels. That there was no chance we'd fool Gabriel and you into thinking they were the progeny of your Watchers."

"But Uriel knew better. He knew what an avid believer Gabriel was, how devoted to interpreting the will of God he was. It's a lot of pressure after all, being a messenger who hears no messages. Or did you not know? So Uriel found the ancient texts and saw a golden opportunity."

Raffe had drifted around to look more directly at Baliel and stood transfixed, his eyes boring into the pitiful daemon as if he was trying to peer straight into his soul.

"So he had me and my associates cultivate suitably horrific abominations, and then led Gabriel to "discover" God's discontent at the mixing of the Angelic and Human races. And then of course it fell to you to channel the fury that Gabriel communicated. Raphael, the wrath of God, unleashed upon his own. How hard that must have been for you."

Raffe's fists clenched and I reached for his arm but he didn't budge. Baliel let out a bark of laughter as he witnessed out exchange and continued.

"We had you fooled for centuries! Devoting centuries to hunting down our manufactured daemons, believing them to be too much your own responsibility to ask for help. And then a few weeks ago you stumble upon this one. And Uriel and I, well we think the farce is up don't we? But no- you stay in her company, in her mothers company even! And you notice nothing. For all those longing looks you give her you still don't see what she is, what they are."

For the first time since Baliel began his speech, Raffe looks at me. He doesn't just look, he stares. Then in a second he's closed the distance between us and he's cupping my face in his hands staring wide-eyed into my face. Baliel laughs again.

"Even with all the generations in between them she still carries her forefather's demeanor doesn't she? Even the humans knew better than you and your angelic friends! Do you know how they described the offspring of the sons of god and the daughters of man? They called them "mighty men of old, men of renown." The children of your Watchers weren't monsters they were heroes! And your 'daughter of man' here is the descendant of the best of them. How could your sword not work in the hands of Gadreel's heir?"

**thank for reading so far guys! Let me know what you think! I'll get better about spelling and proof reading I promise- I just typed today's chapters out on my iPad on flights/ in various airports so once I start writing on an actual computer the writing will improve ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

My head is reeling. I'm the descendent of a fallen angel. The normal, sulky teenager in my mind takes over for a second. Great. I effing hate angels.

Raffe on the other hand doesn't seem to be throwing an internal temper tantrum. Looking at him I tell myself to get it together. So I've got an otherworldly great great grandfather. Raffe wasted a millennium of his life and unnecessarily damned his best friends to hell. If he can hold it together so can I.

Raffe leaned over Baliel his eyes inches from the daemons twisted face. In a voice so low I had to strain to here he asked, "The low daemons. They follow her mother. Will the follow her?"

Baliel's face cracked in a smile again.

"Come now Raphael, you've killed enough low daemons to know what drives them. They were promised the wives of your Watchers. If they don't know they exist they won't pursue them unless..."

He trailed off, but Raffe stiffened at his words and stepped away from the table without prompting him to continue. Raffe knew the unless- apparently I was the only one left in the dark. Remembering that it had been me that Baliel had agreed to speak to in the first place I stepped forwards shooting Raffe an annoyed look.

"They won't pursue me and Paige unless what?" I said my voice hard. I was NOT going to end up like my mother, and whatever horror Raffe wanted to spare me from I would rather know and prepare for than not. Baliel looked delighted that I'd asked. Evidently, it was my turn to be tortured by the truth.

"Unless someone else claims what's theirs. My pet, you don't know this but low daemons are just what they sound like- basic, pitiful creatures. In hell, there are low daemons devoted to all of the sinful impulses in creation, who are drawn to all sorts of vice. But the ones you and your foremothers were promised to, well they feel nothing but lust and envy. So you and your sister are safe from their advances until you share that luscious little body of yours with another. Then they will feel their deprivation, and they will chase you until the end of your days. A pity, I knew of your curse when I took little worm as a pet. If is known the trouble she'd cause at the time I would have simply claimed her and left her to-"

His final words were cut short as I swung Poky Bear down and severed his head from his body. No man discussed raping my sister and lived. Raffe hadn't even flinched as I beheaded Baliel feet from him, but instead brushed off the blood which had spattered him with a mild expression on his face.

"It's just as well, I think he'd told us everything he was going to anyway," he said quietly, without looking up. From the way he'd been preening I'd expected more of a sarcastic response but his voice was pained and thoughtful.

"Raffe..." I said, reaching for him but he recoiled, staring at me incredulously.

"Penryn didn't you hear him?"

"Yeah Raffe! I heard him! Virgin for life or crazy egg lady, got it. Thank you. Please excuse me while I go and begin my cat collection."

He looked genuinely confused by the last comment. Apparently celestial crazy cat ladies aren't a thing. Whatever. I'm having a bad day, he doesn't have to get my cultural references. For a moment he looked like he was going to respond, his lips quirking upward a bit, but then he stopped short, shook himself, and turned towards the door.

"Raffe wait... I didn't mean..." I began, but he was already out the door running towards the cliff.

"Raffe!" I screamed but he was off, diving off the cliff and flying off into the setting sun.

**yeah so I know it got a little weird / violent. But I wanted to complicate things for Raffe and Penryn. Let me know what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

As I watched Raffe disappear into a speck on the horizon I did something I never do. I broke down and cried. Paige, who had elected to stay upstairs during the whole interrogation must have heard us burst out of the house, because within minutes of me breaking down in tears she had stiffly walked over to me and begun patting me on the head in an awkwardly mechanical yet endearing way.

After a few minutes of indulging me she decided I'd had enough time sitting on the rocks, so she scooped me up, carrying me life a baby with her eerie super strength, and walked me all the way up to the light tower. Depositing me on a bench, and patting me on the head gingerly, she walked back down the spiral staircase to the cabin below, shutting to door tightly behind her. I hoped desperately it wasn't because she was taking her time with Baliel's carcass, but honestly I was too drained to care.

Deciding that me cannibalistic but devoted little sister would be able to stand guard over our abandoned lighthouse hideout, I let myself be lulled into a sorrowful sleep by the sound of waves crashing against the rocky cliffs below.

I woke hours later to a tingling, panicked feeling on my neck. Jumping up, I almost collided with Raffe where he was standing over me. He cocked an eyebrow at me in amusement. I was having none of it though.

"You left me," I said sounding more hurt than I'd intended. His eyebrows remained raised but an unmistakable hint of tenderness crept into his face.

"Penryn I went for a flight after learning that the last thousand years of my life were wasted on a lie. Then I came back. With snacks. I fail to see the problem."

I turned over so I didn't have to look at him. Explaining 'the problem' would be messy and exhausting.

"Good talk. Truly riveting," Raffe taunted from behind my back. "I suppose if you're this tired you have no interest in the chocolates or the change of clothes I brought you."

I sigh and turn around. You don't turn down chocolate in a post-apocalyptic world. Ever.

Raffe crouches down so his eyes are level with mine and slings a duffle bag off his shoulder. Smirking slightly, he began to unpack boxes of cereal, wheat thins, peanut butter, and two precious bags of chocolate chips. Setting the food primly aside he then pulled out a pair of track leggings an exercise shirt and a zip up wind breaker that seemed almost perfectly my size. I'd look like I was heading to a post-apocalyptic track meet, but my clothes would let me move and keep me warm even if it rained. Plus, they weren't stained with angel blood, so automatically they were better than the crap I was wearing.

I jumped up and snatched the clothes greedily. Nothing like clean clothes to remind you how filthy you are. To myself I mumbled "I wish I could shower before I put these on."

" I'd be more than happy to drop you in the pacific in you want a quick rinse," Raffe said grinning.

"Thanks but no thanks," I said moving to the stairs and taking them two at a time. There was an industrial sink in the kitchen, and as long as the water was still running I could get somewhat clean before I threw my new clothes on. When I got to the first floor landing I say that the table where Beliel had told us everything was gone, along with and trace of the daemon. Whether that was Paige's doing or Raffe's I couldn't be sure.

"Where's Paige?" I asked swinging back to look at Raffe who was descending the narrow staircase awkwardly. I remember hearing once on a tour of some historic house once, that the proportions of everything in the house were smaller, because people didn't used to grow as large. The staircase in the old light house was tight for modern humans, but for Raffe, even with highs wings shut as tightly as possible, it was a joke.

"She's out hunting. Penryn, it's just what she's going to have to do from now on."

I nodded and turned back to the sink. At least we were in a very isolated area, so her hunger would only be directed at animals. My heart broke a little for my poor, vegetarian sister whose life had been reduced to this, but I let it go. Dwelling on Paige's misfortune for too long would get me nowhere.

"Ok. I'm going to bathe and change," I said matter-of-factly.

"Sure. Sounds like a plan," he replied, leaning back against the stairwell with his arms crossed.

"Go back up the stairs," I said annoyed at the playful, uncooperative glint in his eyes.

"They're a little cramp-"

"Up!"

Beaming at himself for having gotten a rise out of me so easily, Raffe turned back up the stairs and took a few steps up, until he reached the top half if the stairs which opened into the light chamber.

"Satisfied?" He called down, but I had already cranked the faucet on and stripped off my dirty clothes.

The water was ice cold but I tried to ignore it as I scrubbed off the dried blood that had somehow managed to seep through the heinous sweater I had been wearing and leave an ugly, brownish tinge across my torso. The sight of it made me even more intent on scrubbing every bit of the last 24 hours off of myself. I'd killed two people since leaving the house Raffe and I had found after we escaped the bay. I reminded myself that they were NOT people, that they were angels and daemons and that they'd both attempted to kill me and my loved ones before, but it didn't help. Caught up in my own thoughts, and my now obsessive desire to get clean, I dipped my whole head under the faucet.

The icy rush of water pouring across the back of my neck brought me to my senses. I pulled my head out reactively, banging my head on the faucet in my haste.

"Ow Christ!" I yelled as Raffe thundered down the stairs.

"No wait! I'm fine! I just hit my head on the faucet! Don't come down stay on the stairs I'm naked!" I yelled up to him. Raffe froze a few steps from the bottom of the staircase but kept me out of his line of sight.

"The mighty Penryn Young, slayer of angels and daemons alike, defeated by a sink."

"Shut up," I said, pulling on the leggings and throwing the thin shirt over my bare chest. Raffe had done a great job with the clothes but had forgotten a bra (men, honestly), and I'd been without one since I was dressed as one of Uriel's twin dates for the party at the aerie. And so cold, wet and shivering as I was the shirt clung to my skin showing everything. Cleverly, I'd left the wind breaker upstairs by the light too, so I scampered, shivering and still dripping, over to the staircase where Raffe stood waiting.

"Glad to see you surviv-" he began, but the words died in his throat, and he gulped. The staircase was so dark that I could only see his outline, which was frozen in place, blocking my way from getting up the stairs.

"Raffe move!" I said stretching my arms out to push him up the stairs if need be. He seized my arms and pulled me up into his arms so we were pressed against each other, my feet dangly off the ground, with only my flimsy shirt separating my now pounding chest from his. I looked up into his face with surprise. His eyes were intense and seemed to have darkened, but not with anger, with something, something I couldn't let myself think about.

"Penryn," he ground out through gritted teeth. "You need to be careful. You have no idea what the sight of you, like this, does to men."

Apparently I was in foolish teenager mode, because without thinking I breathed, "Even you?"

Raffe smiled a little and leaned in so our faces were only an inch apart."

"Especially me."

And then he kissed me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long hiatus! It's been a crazy month for me! Hope you like this chapter, there should be more coming this week! Please review!**

The moment his lips touched mine it felt so electric and I was so surprised that I made a sort of mewing sound. Apparently it's not enough that I'm destined to die a crazy cat lady, I have to randomly act like a feline at inopportune moments as well. I'm expecting Raffe to pull away at my weirdness and realize that he looks far too much like a Greek God to be even associating with, let alone kissing, this drowned-looking awkward teenager but instead he deepens the kiss, making a deep growling sound of his own and backs me up against the wall of the stairwell.

Half formed thoughts about how we must sound like feeding zoo animals float through my mind. Really though I can't think, hell I can't really even breathe. My body seems to be handling just fine with my brain checked out, and I realize that I've wound my arms around his neck and that my awkward dangling legs seem to have decided of their own accord to wrap themselves around his waist. Every nerve in my body seems to have gone into overdrive and I feel like I'm both overheating and chilled at the same time. I shiver a little and Raffe pulls me closer, cradling my hips against his.

I gasp and nearly jump out of my skin at the contact, breaking the kiss in my surprise. Any lingering questions I had about male angel anatomy just got answered. Raffe is breathing heavily—an unusual occurrence for him—and he stares at me in the semi-darkness, his eyes boring into me. He looks as surprised as I am and strained, as if he's desperately trying to pull it together enough to put on the calm collected veneer he's normally able to maintain. He sets me down slowly, and I sheepishly disentangle my limbs from his perfect body. I feel like kicking myself for my childish reaction but there's nothing I can do about it now, the moment has passed and Raffe already feels distant once again.

"I should go," he says quietly.

I look at him sharply, trying to mask the hurt on my face.

"Raffe. Relax," I say, lamely attempting to shrug it off as if the most amazing kiss of my life is no big deal. He arches a brow at me in the semi-darkness.

"Penryn. While making out with you might not be grounds to damn me to hell for all eternity the risks that you face if this gets out of hand- like being pursued by low daemons for the rest of your life- is nothing to be 'relaxed' about."

I'm blushing at his insinuation that things might get THAT out of hand. So much for I don't even like you (his charming comment to me after the first time we kissed)… As if my life wasn't complicated enough in the World After without the possibility of swapping v-cards with the Wrath of God. Unless he's not as inexperienced as I think? Just because Raffe has avoided humans in the past doesn't mean that he hasn't shacked up with an angel before….

I get a sick twisted feeling in my stomach when I remember Laylah and how possessive she'd come off when she'd met me and Raffe in the hotel room at the aerie. Considering she'd stolen his wings, sewn them onto a daemon, and attached the black bat-like monstrosities to his back on their last encounter I'd say if they do have history than Raffe's ex drama is extreme enough to be featured on Maury. Nothing for me to be jealous of… or want any part in.

I remember myself and look up at him through my lashes. His eyes are still locked on my face, though he's managed to put his mask of detached indifference back in place. I wonder for the millionth time if he can read my mind.

I realize awkwardly that it's my turn to talk but I've got nothing. I'm reunited with Paige, he has his wings back, and we're relatively safe here. What reason is there for him to stay? Whatever angel politics he needs to get into right now would be best done without me. Before I made him take me back to the aerie he'd half jokingly talked about putting me in a bomb shelter with two years worth of supplies until this all blew over. At the time I'd said that getting Paige was what stopped me from accepting his offer, but I knew better now. As much as I hated the feeling of being in danger waiting on the sidelines would kill me. Doc had suggested that Paige might be the best hope for humanity to survive the Angel's invasion. Finding Doc might be the best hope for humanity, he best hope for Paige! and potentially the best hope for Raffe getting his wings back in order,

"Wait until Paige gets back and we'll go together. There's a doctor that the Resistance evacuated from Alcatraz. He's the best chance I've got of helping Paige and he's the best shot you have of getting your wings back without trying your luck with another angelic doctor."

Coming out of my mouth it sounded like a fantastic plan. I pointedly ignore the fact that I only managed to pull it together when faced with the threat of Raffe leaving and look at him expectantly.

He sighs and leans his forehead against mine with his eyes locked shut. For some reason this feel almost more intimate than our make out session had minutes ago. Raffe seems almost vulnerable. As he leans into me, his wings coming around us so were cocooned in his warmth. Finally he speaks.

"Alright, Penryn, you win. But we're not rushing into whatever den the Resistance is hiding in and just hoping for the best this time. We'll do this cautiously, even if it takes more time and patience then you'd like."

I nod, hoping he can't tell how relieved I am at his words. More time is just fine with me.


	7. Chapter 7

I wake up the next morning stretched out on one of the wooden benched which line the walls in the light room. I'd pulled the wind breaker on last night when I got upstairs, but with my hair wet I hadn't been able to warm up until Raffe had grudgingly stretched out behind me. Though I suppose he'd left as soon as u fell asleep I still felt oddly bereft as I looked around the empty room which was illuminated in the pale morning sun which poured in through the large glass pane windows. I sat up and pulled on my shoes before walking to the stairs and clomping down them two at a time.

"You sound like a herd of elephants."

Raffe is sitting with his feet propped up on the table where Baliel met his end last night. Thinking of Baliel a question pops into my mind and I blurt it out without thinking.

"What happens to Angels and Deamons when they die?"

"A bit existential for an elephant, aren't you? Especially in the morning..."

"Raffe. I'm serious."

I realize that 'what happens after death' has to be the single most pondered question in human history. It figures that it would take me the better part of a month in the company of a celestial being before the query would occur to me.

He sits up, amused, and swings his legs down from the table.

"I don't know."

"Raffe you're from heaven, what do you mean you don't know? Do you know what happens to anything when it dies?"

"Nope."

"Well didn't you ever try to find out?"

His face turns serious for a moment and he looks at me sharply.

"Not until recently. Before then no one I really cared about died, they just fell."

I wonder fleetingly if the reason for his recent curiosity was my faux death a few weeks ago. I let it go for the moment, we have more pressing things to do than ponder the universe's greatest mystery. I nod in response and look out the window to see Paige sitting on the bridge swinging her legs in a mechanical but contented way. Being

here has been good for her. She seems like she's finally been feeding (though I hate to think on what) and it seems to have helped heal some of her awful wounds.

"Do you think trying to fix her is the right thing to do?" I say quietly to Raffe. He gets up from the table and comes to stand beside me, glancing out at my sister.

"I think the right thing to do right now is find out what your options are. And that requires this doctor."

I'd explained everything about Doc to him last night after we'd gone upstairs. I told him about the tapes, about watching Baliel psychologically win over my sister, about how I was afraid that even with what she did she still in someway felt more at home around the daemon than me. He'd been quiet but supportive, and I think after everything I told him he felt that Doc was both of our best chance at getting what we want.

"Are you sure you can find the school?" I ask nervously. We'd agreed that the best chance we had of finding Doc was the try to get back to the school where the Resistance had been holed up the last time I was with them. "None of the other angels have found it."

He quirks an eyebrow at me. "One, you gave me directions and I'm sure none of the other angels had those. Two, what in gods green earth makes you think I'm like other angels. I've been tracking things on earth for centuries Penryn, I can find your friends clubhouse just fine."

I make a face at him but his words remind me of another issue. The resistance aren't my 'friends' per Se. Actually the last time I was with them I had to be rescued from the back of a police truck where they'd temporarily confined me and my mother for our 'safety.' They'd needed to lock us up after Paige was discovered eating a body of some unfortunate soul who'd crossed her path at the height of her hunger and some of the men had wanted to put her down.

I shuddered at the memory. No, I would not be bringing Paige back there. Raffe and I agreed, we would go together and get the Doc and bring him back here. We'd have to get a car (if was too far for Raffe to fly us both back) but we'd do that and gather the supplies we needed for Raffe's wing operation and whatever he needed to do to fix Paige. I hated leaving her alone, but she would be safer here and is certainly capable of taking care of herself.

"Ok. I'm going to go talk to Paige. Are you good to leave when I get back?" I ask.

"Oh I don't know I was hoping to do my make-up and hair before we go. You know how important it is for me to make a good impression with your monkey friends."

"Raffe."

"Yes, yes, we'll leave as soon as you're ready."

Even Raffe's jokes aren't enough to alleviate the pit of anxiety I have growing in my stomach at the thought of talking to my sister. I give him a half-smile which I'm sure looks more like a grimace than anything else and walk out the house to where my sister is still sitting.

"Hey little one how you doing?" I ask softly.

She smiles up at me. The stitches are still there, but her cheeks have begun to scab over and develop into puckered scars. Still, it seems as if she's in less pain, thank god for small mercies.

"Paige, Raffe and I are going to be gone for a few days. We need to find someone who can help him and might be able to help me and you."

"Mama?" Paige asks inquisitively.

Up until she asked I hadn't even thought about trying to find my mother. After seeing her odd sacrificial locus on the boats leaving Alcatraz I had just figured she was ok and turned my thoughts back to finding Paige. My mother had been considered insane for most of my life, but in the World After she was one of the best suited survivors around. I thought about what Baliel had told us about the low daemons hunting down women in my family. I wonder if the accident that left Paige crippled had been their fault and not my mother's doing after all.

"Yes Paige, we'll look for mom and bring her back with us." If we could. Mom thought Raffe was the devil incarnate. Of course, she'd also thought that my homecoming date freshman year had the eyes of a hellhound. To be fair to my mother, at least now most people who saw Raffe with his wings out agreed with her assessment.

Paige smiled at my answer and nodded. "Ok Ryn Ryn."

"Paige, please don't leave except to eat unless there's danger ok? And if you do have to leave, we'll try to meet you by Fort Point ok? You know the one down town by the bridge?"

She nods again. It feels all wrong asking my baby sister to meet me miles from here, but I know she can walk and if the angels come I don't want her hanging around in the area waiting for me and Raffe.

"I love you Paige, you know that right."

"Paige loves Ryn Ryn too," She says. I hug her, managing not to shrink away this time, and stroke her hair.

"Ok baby girl. We'll be back as soon as we can."

With that I force myself to get up and walk back to the house. Raffe is standing outside, waiting for me already.

"Let's go," I say, not wanting to drag out the goodbye any longer than I have to. He comes to stand right in front of me and I put my arms around his neck. He scopes me up into his arms and we launch off into the sky.


	8. Chapter 8

Raffe could see people moving at the school before I even knew we were close. He circled around, dropping low behind a nearby hill so the resistance couldn't see his dissent, then skimming along the tree tops. I'm reminded again how much of an unfair fight this is.

"They're having some sort of trial," Raffe says to me quietly.

"Is it for my mother?" I ask. Internally I'm cursing myself for not coming for her sooner.

"No, I don't think so. The accused has a man's voice." Just when you start getting used to angels, they go and evesdrop on a conversation two miles away, and your back to thinking how unfathomably god-like they are. Although I suppose it says something about me that I was able to forget that while flying…

"I think it's your doctor friend."

"We need to get there fast."

"Oh ok sure. Why didn't you say so earlier? I thought this little weighted flying exercise was just supposed to be an upper body workout."

I elbow him, then remember I'm speeding along fifty feet off the ground.

"Not the most strategic attempt at revenge, Penryn, but not your most foolish attempt by a long shot."

"Shut up."

We're close now and I can see the backs of people milling around the baseball bleachers in the back of the school. In the middle of the baseball diamond a platform has been erected. Doc is sitting there, his hands cuffed behind him in a school desk, while on the other side Obi, one of his lieutenants and both twins are sitting listening. Two men, acting as makeshift lawyers are addressing the onlookers and Obi. Off to the side of the field a noose swings ominously from a nearby tree. I suppose there's not many sentencing options in the World After, but it still surprises me to see our community of San Fran liberals resorting to public hangings as a form of justice.

We land noiselessly and I turn to Raffe. I'm more than a little nervous about facing the resistance again. Although I did help them liberate Alcatraz (laying the plans and giving the tip off has to count for something) the last time I was here my mother and I had to escape from the back of a police van after my sister killed one of the three men who attempted to kill me for no particular reason. Still, I'm better off facing the resistance alone than with Raffe looking like the devil who haunts their nightmares.

"Stay close unless this doesn't work but I'm going to try to talk to them first," I whisper to him as he slides me down into a standing position.

"Ok, I'll be close by. But Penryn, please be careful."

Earnest Raffe melts my heart, so instead of dealing with my emotions like an adult I turn and make a bee line for the baseball diamond. I'll take facing off with a testosterone charged crowd of apocalypse preppers over emotionally vulnerability any day.

I skirt around the crowd, and make my way onto the field directly. People in the crowd see me first, and I see my mother get up and elbow her way to the front, pressing her face against the chain-link fence behind home plate and staring. Good old mom. I really will have to try to get her to come. I get a mixed review from the rest of the crowd. Some of the people from Alcatraz recognize me and wave, while the two surviving members of the trio that tried to jump me glower. One of them looks like ready to murder me on the spot.

Seeing the commotion from the crowd, Obi turns. The twins wink at me delightedly. They looked pretty bored with the trial, and one of them smiles appreciatively at me, as if to thank me for livening the event up.

"Penryn what are you doing here?" Obi asks. He doesn't seem angry- more bewildered than anything else, but I still feel like my odds of talking my way through this are pretty slim. Still, it's worth a shot.

"Obi I need the doctor. I need him to help fix my sister."

He looks at me sympathetically, "Penryn you don't even know if that's possible. This man is responsible for experimenting on dozens of children and creating the scorpion monsters who attacked us before. He doesn't deserve to live."

"No he doesn't." I agree, "But I'd rather keep him alive and have him try to make right than watch him hang. Killing him won't make up for what he did to me sister, and killing him won't help us learn how to defeat the scorpions and fight the angels."

In my peripheral vision, I can see members of the crowd nodding in agreement. Apparently there's remnants of the liberal intelligentsia left in this world after all.

"What are you proposing?"

"Let me take him back to where my sister is. Let him try to make her right. If he pulls anything, or tries to run, I'll kill him myself. You won't have to deal with him Obi, he'll be out of your hands."

I know the resistance leader well enough to know that peace in the camp is something he's willing to do just about anything for, so I put extra weight on the last bit.

"Alright Penryn. Give us a minute to talk it over. I nod and take a step back. Out of the corner of my eye I see something heading for me and coming fast. I duck instinctively but my attacker is on me in a second, pulling me up by my hair. I feel the cold press of a knife against my neck, and I stare wildly at Obi and the twins both of whom are on their feet. Obi's lieutenant seems less upset and sneers up at me from his seat.

"Sorry Obi. I can't let this hell bitch charm you again. I won't let her get away, not this time."

I can tell by his voice it's one of the three men who attacked me before. My mother is going nuts trying to claw her way to me but people in the crowd are restraining her. Whether it's to keep her from hurting me accidentally or to let the man have his way I can't be sure.

"Eric I order you to release her. She is a friend and an ally. Its thanks to her half the people here are alive today."

"She's a daemon whore, Obi, all three of them are monsters."

A shadow passes over us and I see the crowd react in horror and alarm. Eric's arm is suddenly wrenched from my throat with a sickening crack, and I whirl around to hit him, only to see his crumbled frame splayed out under a tree ten yards away and an empty space where he was a moment before.

Raffe, in all his terrifying glory is standing over him. Any chance of refuting the daemon whore accusation just went out the window.


	9. Chapter 9

I turn back to Obi to try and see what the damage is. Obi's lieutenant is shrinking back in his chair in horror. The twins, though both looking more nervous than I've ever seen them, don't look surprised. I wonder how long they've known about Raffe. If anyone did the math after the attack on the Aerie and figured out that the devil carrying my body was also my mind mannered companion during my first stay with the resistance, it was Dee Dum. Obi is unreadable, which has to be bad news.

"I know you," he says at last to Raffe. In that moment I appreciate how truly brave Obi really is. He knows that if Raffe wants to kill him it's a done deal, so he's facing him like a man. I feel a pang of affection and loyalty for my resistance friend. Obi's not just some scruffy mountain man, he knows the stakes of the game he's playing.

"Yes. You do. We met when I was in my human form."

Ok, not sure where Raffe is going with this one. Neither is Obi, clearly, and Dee Dum seem fascinated.

"What are you?" Obi's voice is uncharacteristically low and even gruffer than usual, but it's the only sign of fear he gives off.

"I am the Wrath of God- though you humans have known me by other names."

I shiver. Whatever Raffe is doing to change his voice his demeanor is working on me too. The whole world seems darker and colder, and the sky is the same sickly green color it was the night we questioned Baliel.

"What other names? How do we know you're not just some angel with weird wings?" Boy Obi's really going for it.

Raffe smiles. I wonder how many times he's done this over the centuries because he seems to have the routine down packed. He pushes off the ground with one powerful stroke of his wings, and hovers ten feet off the ground. Behind him the clouds are a swirling mass of green and grey. Suddenly lightening cracks out of the sky from two clouds at once, coming together and forming a Y shape behind Raffe. The brightness of the lightening shrouds his face, though his wings are lit up from behind so every blood vessel shows through like a sickening red spiderweb.

"To you mortals I am the God of Thunder and Change! I am Zeus and I am Thor. Your forefathers watched me battle Titans and Giants while they cowered in their Oikos and Longhouses in fear and dismay. I am not your enemy, though I cause men fear."

Is that true? Holy shit is Raffe Zeus? I suppose he could've fought the false nephilim that Uriel had sent up from Hell all around the world, so it would make some sense. Still, we need to talk.

"Why are you with Penryn? What do you want from us now?" It's one of the twins doing the questioning now. Apparently chatting with Zeus/Thor/Wrath of God was finally overwhelming Obi a little bit.

"The Lord has special plans for her. Only with her alive can the false angels be defeated."

Good one Raffe, now if I ever get stuck with the resistance they'll treat me like a China doll. That's probably exactly what he's going for too, insurance that I'll be kept away from trouble if we get separated.

"But for now, I need her to come with me, if she is willing. And I need the doctor as well."

"YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!"

Uh oh. Should have known that one wouldn't go over well with my mother.

"Mom. Mom! It's ok, Raffe is my friend. He's going to help not hurt."

"Penryn!" My mom pleads with me, strokng my hair so forcefully it tugs, "You cannot be the devil's bride. Then THEY will always be around, waiting in the shadows."

I feel bad now, knowing what I do, that my mother is not entirely crazy but has in fact been stalked since she was a young woman by low daemons. Still, I figure my new found knowledge might be my best chance of defusing the situation.

"Mom. I know about the daemons. I see them too. And only he can protect me from them, only he can defeat them for good."

My mother gives me an open palm slap to the head.

"You gave yourself to him! Oh Penryn see how you lie! You are the devil's bride indeed!"

"Jesus Christ mom! No!" I'm blushing furiously at this point. Why, why didn't I anticipate her making the virginity connection? And there's no way Raffe, Dee and Dum didn't hear, though maybe the twins are too distracted by meeting a Norse God to be paying attention. Knowing them though, it's unlikely.

"The daemons are attacking earlier because of the disturbance of the worldly order," Raffe offers. My mother arches an eyebrow at him. Leave it to her to give Zeus the stank-eye.

"If you are concerned for Penryn, you may come with us. But now we must leave. And the Doctor must come with us."

Obi gives Raffe a hard look, but shrinks back as Raffe lands just two feet in front of him.

"And you promise it's to fight the angels. Please swear to me you're on our side."

Obi is grasping at straws, but who can blame him. Luckily, almost all of the resistance folk fled into the school the second Raffe landed, and most of the remaining stalwarts were shaken from their seats by the God-of-Thunder-Hear-Me-Roar routine, so few people were left to see Obi bargain with the devil.

"You have my word. But I will need something from you. We need a vehicle, and need you to swear to protect Penryn if ever you should meet again."

Obi nods seriously, and the one of the twins holds out keys for me.

"Take the Tahoe, you'll want something roomier for his wings and all…" Dee (or Dum) says sheepishly. "And be careful Penryn, you're wrapped up in some pretty heavy shit."

"Aren't we all," I respond, getting small smiles out of both of them.

One of the twins whips out a walkie talkie and hands it to me "If anything major happens, or if you need to reach us, this should work for anyone in the resistance within 50 miles of you," they say.

I take it gratefully and walk over to Doc. Obi passes me the keys to his handcuffs, and I bend down to free his hands.

"No, I don't want to go with you. I'd rather be hung. No."

"Sorry, Doc. Not asking." I say as Raffe sidles over, lifts him off the chair and flings him over one shoulder like a sack of flour. We walk to the front of the school, and I pop the trunk of the Tahoe where Raffe places him, none too gently, inside.

The others have followed us back and Dee Dum hands me a bandana. I raise my eyebrow at him and he gestures at Doc. "You'll wanna gag him, angels can hear things from far away."

I nod and bind docs mouth quickly, then turn back to the resistance party. My mother is hovering five feet behind them looking distressed.

"Coming mom?" I ask, opening the car door as if I was guiding a young toddler to the back seat. She prances around in place for a moment then bolts towards the car, hopping in the front passengers seat and slamming the door. Raffe is busy rearranging the back seats so he can fit in with his wings. Finally satisfied, he slides in the now mostly chair-less back. I turn on the car and together our strange company slowly begins the journey back to Paige.


End file.
